The Mariinsky Theatre is launching celebrations for the Year of Stravinsky – a composer whose legacy occupies a special place in the repertoire of the theatre and of its orchestra. In late February, audiences may look forward to a major concert programme to be conducted by Valery Gergiev, the opera Le Rossignol after the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen and the ballets The Firebird and Pétrouchka with choreography by Michel Fokine.
To mark the 75th birthday of Alexander Tchaikovsky, one of the most renowned and active Russian composers of the present day, there will be a performance of his opera Chess King. Following its premiere in 2017, the work based on the acclaimed The Royal Game by Zweig has been performed on just a few occasions at concerts of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers. For the composer's birthday it is to be presented in a semi-staged format.
The opera playbill includes festive winter productions such as Christmas Eve, A Christmas Tale and Die Fledermaus as well as Mozart's Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro. At the Concert Hall there will be another performance of Tannhäuser under Valery Gergiev and a semi-staged version of The Love for Three Oranges. Following a lengthy absence, the stage will see the return of Ruslan and Lyudmila, the hero and heroine of the eponymous Russian fairytale epos. Glinka's opera is to be staged for the first time at the Mariinsky II.
The playbill for classical ballet includes Giselle, Le Corsaire and the Soviet-era masterpieces The Fountain of Bakhchisarai and Romeo and Juliet (moved from 29 May). Audiences at the Mariinsky II will see Ilya Zhivoi's The Four Seasons and The Nutcracker in a staging and with designs by Mihail Chemiakin. On 12 February the production will mark its twentieth birthday.
The concert playbill for holidays and weekends is sure to delight with its variety of programmes for younger audiences and family visits to the theatre. There will be a performance of the fantasy Le Carnaval des animaux and the symphonic tale Peter and the Wolf, the role of the Narrator to be enacted for the first time by Bolshoi Drama Theatre actress Polina Malikova (Tonstun). Through symphony music, these theatrical concerts will bring familiar plots and images from Russian and Italian fairytales to life. Adult audiences may expect the vast cantata Carmina Burana and an evening of French music which is being rehearsed by Ekaterina Semenchuk and Christian Knapp.
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